Yankees: Remembering "The Flip Play"

OAKLAND, Calif. – Derek Jeter didn't just happen to be in the right place at the right time.

The future Yankees' captain was right where he supposed to be on Oct. 13, 2001, a Saturday night at the Oakland Coliseum when "The Flip Play" entered baseball's postseason lore and the AL Division Series momentum shifted away from the Athletics.

He doesn't rank his greatest plays. "I'm happy it was a big moment for us," Jeter said Friday evening, prior to his final regular-season series in the cavernous stadium.

Perhaps he'll reflect more on that famous ALDS Game 3 play at a future date, but Jeter – who is retiring at the season's end — said he's "never sat down and looked at it" in the way fans or historians do.

But one glance at the right field corner here can bring all the details rushing back.

Down 0-2 in the best-of-five series, the Yankees were clinging to a 1-0 lead when Terrence Long's double to right field seemed destined to score Jeremy Giambi with the tying run.

Right fielder Shane Spencer overthrew the first cutoff man, but there was Jeter – roaming like a free safety toward the right side of the diamond – to save the day.

From the middle of the first base line, Jeter corralled the ball on a bounce and made a backhanded flip to catcher Jorge Posada, whose swipe tag on Giambi – who failed to slide – preserved what would become a 1-0 victory.

The Yankees took the next two games to win the series. And they went on to beat the 116-win Mariners in the ALCS before losing a memorable World Series to the Diamondbacks in seven games.

"It was an unbelievable play," said Alfonso Soriano, the Yankees' second baseman at the time. "After that play, I think we have more motivation to win the series. I think that's the big, key play of the series – that play."

Nearly 13 years later, Jeter can't bring himself to see the "The Flip Play" in those terms.

And it's not a memory that comes rushing to his mind when the Yankees visit October, or when someone asks him about his greatest October moments.

"I tend to think about the times we played [Oakland] in the postseason, not that one particular play," Jeter said. "I have playoff memories where we knew we had to beat a great team in order to move forward.

"I think [more about] the teams we played as opposed to one play."

And that one play was no fluke, as Jeter has insisted. Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon and Eric Chavez, all of whom were in the lineup that night for the A's, learned when they became Yankees that it was part of early spring training infield drills.

"We don't necessarily do that flip, but we make sure the shortstops understand where they're supposed to be," manager Joe Girardi said. "It's just a little bit different relay system than you're used to seeing."

"It's easier for the first baseman and the second baseman" to be the first relay option, Girardi said, allowing the shortstop "to kind of drift to wait and see how the play is going to develop."

Girardi was in the latter stage of his playing career with the Cubs in 2001 and didn't watch the play live on TV, but he'd played enough with Jeter – on three world championship teams – to know it wasn't just a lucky break.

"Some people call it a signature play, one they'll remember the most," Girardi said. "But to me, it was just Derek being Derek."